I believe it is fairly likely that the Church of Shade - which escaped and now has 50 PLs of Shadow dragons - has your trooper.

I believe Alzem should stay. For one thing, Alzem's PC is a solar of St. Cuthbert, an Oerth deity. Also, after too many bad episodes of Voyager and Deep Space Nine, I have my doubts about the Prime Directive. Respect for other cultures, yes. However, sometimes it is in a soceity's interest to be involved in another culture. I think enlightened self interest should be the key.

I will respect your decision. Some more food supplies, clothing, and building materials will at least help the problems on Oerth. As well as making the Wanderer seem like a liar. (He is a hateful bigot, a thing I have no use for in real life.)

dagger:

Remember, Murlynd acts and dresses like a cowboy from the Old West. So, ask Gnomeworks to equip him with the latest magically enhanced sidearms. As you are in Austin, I believe, you should have no problems with finding sources for portrayal. (As a Chicagoan, I threw a lot of John Wayne into portraying Murlynd.)

Mr. Draco: Neutral evil seems a strange choice for a cleric worshipping the ideal of loyalty. I could see lawful neutral, maybe even lawful evil (doubtful).

Last edited by William Ronald; Thursday, 14th March, 2002 at 03:55 AM.

Sollir- thanks, also i was wondering how long it would take someone to notice, congrats! None of the others are derived from the names of actual people except for one, and its derived from one of my friend's name, so i doubt you'd get it. The aragorn thing was unintentional.

[edit]- William Ronald, you're right, that should have been lawful neutral (which i originally intended) thanks for the heads up!

TO TOKIWONG (and others needing help)

Tokiwong, you asked me to help you with the IR.
This post is an effort to be of help.

The IR is a freeform rping game, as you know.
However, there are some rules, to give it greater meaning, greater reality, and to keep it from running away from those who are slower in Posting (or, who, quite reasonably, are unable to Post or read the boards for a long time, for any reason.)

- - -

The IR is divided into Turns.

A Turn represents one month of game time.
One month passes on the world of Oerth, Greyspace (the Crystal Sphere around the solar system Oerth is in), on the world of Toril, in Realmspace, and everywhere else.

However, how long a Turn lasts In Real Life depends.
It depends on how long it takes people to post 400 times.
400 posts are the limit to each turn.
Since the ENBoards can only handle threads of 200 posts, this means each Turn consists of 2 threads of 200 posts each.

The most important concept in the IR is that of freeform roleplaying.
Although in this IR that has become gritty and dark, it need not be - the first IR was quite frivolous in nature (yeah, we trashed Toril. Let's trash it again!)
Freeform any way you want!

Now, the question is: how much power do you have to back up anything you say?
If Iuz decides to threaten the Kevellond League, you want to know how much might he has to back up those threats!

That is called Power Level, but everyone refers to it as PL.

At the beginning of every Turn, it is vital that you access your PL.

You gain PL from many sources.

Your Player Character.
Your Non-Player Characters.
The Countries and Territories you hold.
Loot plundered from the City of the Gods.
Your PL value (listed as a number) in the Technological Arms Race.
Your PL value in the Magical Arms Race.
Your PL value in the Planar Arms Race.
Your PL value in the Undead Arms Race.
Your PL value in the Monster Arms Race.
Your PL value in the Construct Arms Race.

You add all these up, and you have your total PL (or, rather, I add all these up, and list your total PL for you ... which is very time-consuming, and I generally don't seem to be able to add properly!)

Once you know how much PL you have, you can use it to do certain things.
It does not matter WHERE the PL comes from ... you can use ALL of it as you wish. Indeed, when you are assigning PL to certain things, forget where it came from.

Here is what you can do with PL:

You can choose to attempt to learn 10th level magic.
For every 10 PL you spend doing this, you gain an extra point in the Magical Arms Race.
(Note that you get one point free for each Turn that passes also.)
When you get to 50 points in the Magical Arms Race, you will have 10th level magic, and be able to throw Catastrophes like Kalanyr did on Acererak!
There is nothing like being able to wipe out an entire enemy nation in one stroke.

However, there is a penalty. For every 10 points you spend on research, you lose 2 PL permanently from your countries.
Researching 10th level magic is dangerous, and tends to kill people (and sometimes level whole cities.)

You may choose to Advance Your Civilization.
There is a difference between having modern weapons, and having a modern civilization.
There are many famous books (Dune among them) that depict more primitive civilizations with modern weapons.

Your civilization started the IR with the Terran equivalent of 1500 AD - that is to say, it started in the Medieval Age.
Every Turn, it advances the equivalent of one year into the Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Industrial Revolution (the last being the most important.)

You may speed up this process by allocating PL to it.
For every 3 PL you spend, your Power progresses an additional year equivalent into the Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Industrial Revolution.
There is no limit to the PL you can spend for this purpose.
Some players last turn spent 150 PL on this, advancing a full 50 years!

When you advance 10 years, and everytime you advance 10 years, the PL of the countries you hold increases permanently.
Countries marked with an (S) increase by 1 PL.
Countries marked with a (M) increase by 2 PL.
Countries marked with a (L) increase by 3 PL.
Countries marked with a (LL) increase by 4 PL.

Thus, on the next Turn, you will have a PL much greater than you had this Turn, if your civilization advances 25 or 30 years during this Turn.

Only countries benefit from this.
If your Power holds no countries, you cannot benefit from Advancing your Civilization.
Valkys is an exception to this rule, but Alzem and Forrester are not exceptions.

Once you have allocated points to the Magical Arms Race and Advancing your Civilization, you will have PL left over (hopefully)

This PL is automatically assumed to be in the form of armies.
These armies can attack, defend, or do anything you want them to do during the Turn.
They cannot do more in a Turn, than armies could do in a month, but that's still a lot.

Your armies must actually march on foot to battle (they are allowed to travel 40 miles per day), unless ships come to carry them, or Kaboom sends his Flying Ships and Flying Citadels to carry them, or if you gain 10th level magic.

IF you gain 10th level magic, ALL your armies can go ANYWHERE, anytime, as they please, without any limits at all.

If you do not allocate any PL to armies - that is, if you spend all your PL in Advancing your Civilization and the Magical Arms Race - you are taking a terrible risk.
You have no armies to defend yourself!
If another Power attacks you, you will be overrun, to the limit of how far your opponent's armies can march in one Turn (if they are ferried, you may be totally conquered.)

Kalanyr, Festy Dog and Forsaken One overcame this problem by hiding miles underneath the ground, and their opponents did not attempt to seek them out.
Even so, had it been found out that they had no defenses, the troops on the surface COULD have marched into the deep earth and destroyed them all!
The old rule: Out of Sight, Out of Mind, saved these three Powers from destruction.

You are not out of sight, much less out of mind.
Spend some of your PL on armies!

Your PC and NPCs are automatically considered to be a part of your armies.

If for some reason you leave no PL for armies, your PC and NPCs are considered inactive (and helpless to do anything but defend themselves if attacked) during the Turn.

These are the basics of the IR.

Now, let's consider some of the good stuff.

Your Power is gaining better and better weapons, and factories to build them, and the knowhow to make them.
This is represented by your number in the Technological Arms Race.
The higher the number, the better your weapons.

With a PL of 4 in the Technological Arms Race, your Power can make flintlock pistols and rifles.
With a PL of 18, your Power can make any weapon out of the late 19th century.
With a PL of 25 or so, your Power can make nuclear weapons.

You gain 1 point in the Technological Arms Race each Turn for free.
However, you may share your technology with friends, and they may share it back.
Every other Power that helps you gives you 1 additional point in the Technological Arms Race, up to a maximum of 3 extra points.
Thus, you can gain 4 points per Turn in the Technological Arms Race, if you can talk people into sharing technology with you.

I have this large map (3 feet by 4 feet) set up, and on it are hundreds of army markers (think Axis and Allies.)
I thus know where every army on the board is.
When you attack an opponent, or him you, I roll 2 dice for each of your PL of armies.

Thus, if you have 10 PL of armies being attacked, and the attacker has 15 PL, I will roll 20 dice for you and 30 dice for him.

Half of these rolls count as Attacks, and half count as Defenses.

A 1, on a d6, is considered a hit, and 1 PL of the enemy's force is considered destroyed.
This applies to both Attack and Defense.
You thus have a chance to destroy 2 PL of enemy forces with every 1 PL of your own.
Your opponent, likewise, has that chance.
But you must roll a 1 to hit (or, rather, I must roll a 1.)

Thus, if you had a 25 in the Technological Arms Race, your roster would look like this:

(+ 2 / + 1)

That means, your armies hit on a 3 or less when they attack, and hit on a 2 or less when they defend.
And for every 1 PL of armies you have, that counts as one army, and one roll for attack and one roll for defense.

If you gain 10th level magic, you automatically and permanently gain + 2 / + 2, in addition to any other bonuses.
10th level magic makes your armies super strong, able to easily annihilate foes who never have a chance to save themselves.

If your armies are defending a fortified place, or a city, they gain a + 1 to the defensive roll.

If you have 10th level magic, the opponent does not get the + 1 I just mentioned, as normal defenses are useless against you.

A total of + 5 / + 4.
So, he automatically hits on the Attack, and needs a 5 or less on the defense.

If he rolls over a 6 with all his bonuses, he hits TWICE with one roll, and destroys 2 PL instead of one.

For this reason, Forrester thinks of his armies as invincible, uber-armies that nobody on the world of Oerth can hope to defeat, and most of the Powers on Oerth agree with him.

Forsaken One has dressed up his entire army in suits of Red Steel, a substance obtained from the poisonous Red Goo.
The effects of wearing this stuff are great, and Forsaken One is in for some nasty shocks, and pleasant surprises, at the end of Turn 5.

However, the Red Steel gives his armies a + 1 / + 2, making him much more of a power to be reckoned with.

- - -

The Lists Post is ALWAYS the first or second post in each Turn.
It always will be the first or second post.

Demons (Planars of the Abyss, chaotic evil) PL see the Planar Arms Race
Demons again (Planars of the Abyss, chaotic evil) PL see the Planar Arms Race
Yugoloths (Planars of the Gehenna, the Grey Waste, Tartarus, neutral evil) PL see the Planar Arms Race

Undead (Undead of every type, evil) PL see the Undead Arms Race
Monsters (Monsters of every kind from the MMs, all alignments but good) PL see the Monster Arms Race
Constructs (Constructs of every kind, neutral) PL see the Construct Arms Race

Rovers of the Barrens (Flannae humans, humanoids of all types, slaves of all types, neutral and evil) (M) Original PL 3, Current PL 6
Empire of the Bright Lands (Rary, baklunish humans, dwarves, humanoids of all types, slaves of all types, constructs, summoned beings, evil) (S) Original PL 4, Current PL 4
Empire of Iuz (Humans of all types, humanoids of all types, slaves of all types, undead of all types, dwarves, evil) (L) Original PL 25, Current PL 26
Horned Society (Humans of all types, humanoids of all types, slaves of all types, undead of all types, dwarves, evil) (M) Original PL 7, Current PL 8
Ket (Baklunish humans, neutral) (M) Original PL 4, Current PL 8
Hold of Stonefist (Suel humans, flannae humans, dwarves, slaves of all types, neutral and evil) (M) Original PL 6, Current PL 8
Humanoids of the Yatils (humanoids of every type, evil) (L) Original PL 3, Current PL 11

Iuz is a demigod, and he has a PL of 7. He's stronger than practically any other Player Character around. He's tough and strong.
However, Iuz is a creation of official Greyhawk Canon.
You can create your own Player Character.
He won't be quite as strong as Iuz, but he can be up to PL 5, and he will be your PC, and not something thrust on you from the official setting.

Everyone is allowed 16 PL of Non Player Characters.
You get to invent them, and they can be anything you want them to be.
You already have Rary and Lord Robilar, and they have a combined PL of 3, so you only have 13 PL left to create NPCs with.
You could drop Rary and Lord Robilar, if you wanted to, to have that extra 3 PL to invent NPCs with.

Take a look at what the others have done with their PCs and NPCs.
Some of them are very creative, and some of them are incredibly powerful.

- - -

TOKIWONG

Demons (Planars of the Abyss, chaotic evil) PL see the Planar Arms Race
Demons again (Planars of the Abyss, chaotic evil) PL see the Planar Arms Race
Yugoloths (Planars of the Gehenna, the Grey Waste, Tartarus, neutral evil) PL see the Planar Arms Race

You are allowed to summon 3 Planar Races of your choosing.
They can be anything from any book or supplement in the game.
The only limitation is you cannot summon good Planars if your Power is evil, and vice versa, and you cannot summon both good and evil Planars at the same time.

You can double up (indeed, you have with the demons) on a Planar Race.

You can drop one Planar Race and take another.

Regardless of what you do, you gain 3 PL in the Planar Arms Race every Turn.
1 PL for each Planar race summoned.

Battle losses can reduce your PL in this Race, and has done so for everyone in the IR except Valkys.

- - -

TOKIWONG

Undead (Undead of every type, evil) PL see the Undead Arms Race
Monsters (Monsters of every kind from the MMs, all alignments but good) PL see the Monster Arms Race
Constructs (Constructs of every kind, neutral) PL see the Construct Arms Race

These are ways to gain more allies, and more PL.

You gain 1 PL per Turn from the Undead Arms Race.
You gain 3 PL per Turn from the Monster Arms Race (heh - a lot of players have constructed troll farms. One cuts said troll up, regenerates each piece into a new troll, then repeats procedure ... well, at least, they are trying such things.)
You gain 1 PL per Turn from the Construct Arms Race.

Again, your numbers in these races can be reduced by battle losses.

Your numbers in the Technological and Magical Arms Races can NEVER be reduced by battle losses.

This is an army that has come to help you.
It is not a nation.
Because it is not a nation, it is marked NA, instead of S, M, L, or LL.
If it's PL is reduced, that is permanent. Nothing can make up the lost PL.

- - -

TOKIWONG

Rovers of the Barrens (Flannae humans, humanoids of all types, slaves of all types, neutral and evil) (M) Original PL 3, Current PL 6
Empire of the Bright Lands (Rary, baklunish humans, dwarves, humanoids of all types, slaves of all types, constructs, summoned beings, evil) (S) Original PL 4, Current PL 4
Empire of Iuz (Humans of all types, humanoids of all types, slaves of all types, undead of all types, dwarves, evil) (L) Original PL 25, Current PL 26
Horned Society (Humans of all types, humanoids of all types, slaves of all types, undead of all types, dwarves, evil) (M) Original PL 7, Current PL 8
Ket (Baklunish humans, neutral) (M) Original PL 4, Current PL 8
Hold of Stonefist (Suel humans, flannae humans, dwarves, slaves of all types, neutral and evil) (M) Original PL 6, Current PL 8
Humanoids of the Yatils (humanoids of every type, evil) (L) Original PL 3, Current PL 11

These are the nations you control at the beginning of the Turn.
As you can see, they are listed by name, the kind of peoples in them is given, and the general alignment of each is given.
Their size (relating to Advancing your Civilization) is then given in parenthesis.
Their original PL was the PL they had before the IR started.
It fluctuates. Battle losses (and Antimatter Barrages) reduce a country's PL.
Advancing your Civilization increases a country's PL (they make better use of what they have.)

Acquisitions covers countries that you have conquered.
Acquisitions also covers countries that were willingly traded to you by other Powers.
Finally, acquisitions covers countries you hold that are out of play permanently (that is the case with the Cairn Hills, which have been ruined by Shade Poisoning, and nothing can live there.)

This is a summary of your name, what you are playing (for ease of reference for you and everyone else), and your total PL.
You will see that your PL is broken into four groups.
The 7 is the PL of Iuz, your Player Character.
The 16 is the PL of your NPCs.
The 98 is the PL of the Gem Dragon Army, your Nations, and your PL from raiding the City of the Gods.
The 28 is the sum total of your points from the Technological Arms Race, Magical Arms Race, Planar Arms Race, Undead Arms Race, Monster Arms Race, and Construct Arms Race.

Remember that only your Total PL is important.
Everyone else is secondary - the 4 listings are there simply to tell you how strong or weak you are in one area or another.

- - -

TOKIWONG

THE TECHNOLOGICAL ARMS RACE

Tokiwong 16 (+ 1 / 0)

This is your score. A 16. Advanced enough you have pretty good firearms, and even have gatling guns.
But you do not yet have tanks, or missiles, or more advanced weapons.
Your units, when I roll their two rolls per 1 PL of armies engaged in battle, hit on a 2, and defend on a 1.

THE MAGICAL ARMS RACE

Tokiwong 4

You are a long way from gaining 10th level magic.
Indeed, so far your Power has not attempted any research, other than the free point you gain each Turn.

THE UNDEAD ARMS RACE

Tokiwong (evil undead) 1

You are summoning evil undead, because Iuz and his empire are evil!
You gain 1 point for free each Turn in this race.
Your score would be much higher than this, but you lost all your undead on Turn 4, and have to start over.

THE MONSTER ARMS RACE

Tokiwong 3

You are summoning or creating monsters as fast as you can.
Your score increases by 3 points per Turn for free.
Your score would be a lot higher than this, but you lost all your monsters during Turn 4.

THE CONSTRUCT ARMS RACE

Tokiwong 1

Nothing like building golems, and other automatons.
You gain 1 point every Turn for free in this Race.
Again, your score should be much higher than this, but your Constructs were all destroyed in the massive battles during Turn 4.

Level of your Society and Culture, in Terran terms.

Tokiwong 1540.6

You have advanced 40.6 years into the Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Industrial Age (in the case of the Empire of Iuz, it is up to you whether there was much Enlightenment ...)

The player prior to you, spent a lot of points on Advancing his Civilization, during Turns 1 through 4.

Originally posted by kaboom I'll claim them (Heward, Mordenkainen, and Keoghtom)
What alignment is Mystra?

Did I lose Mordenkainen someplace?

Black Omega
-----------
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
-- Charles Babbage (1791-1871)

you said:
"You may speed up this process by allocating PL to it.
For every 3 PL you spend, your Power progresses an additional year equivalent into the Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Industrial Revolution.
There is no limit to the PL you can spend for this purpose.
Some players last turn spent 150 PL on this, advancing a full 30 years!"

It should read:
"You may speed up this process by allocating PL to it.
For every 3 PL you spend, your Power progresses an additional year equivalent into the Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Industrial Revolution.
There is no limit to the PL you can spend for this purpose.
Some players last turn spent 150 PL on this, advancing a full 50 years!"

1) What was his first destination when he left? (He could have moved on from there, of course, without our knowing)

ANSWER: Your Seers deduce he was on patrol, protecting Realmspace, along the border with the Border Ethereal where it is closest to Greyspace

2) Was he taken involuntarily? Similarly, was he taken through some sort of mental compulsion/charm, or did he leave freely?

ANSWER: He was attacked, defeated, and abducted.

3) Did anyone accompany him when he first left?

ANSWER: Yes. About 20 people.

1) The Shade menace has been dealt with -- when I last saw them, their empire had crumbled and they had been chased from Oerth
2) The City of the Gods on Oerth is no longer a threat -- and, in fact, we've brought back several hundreds of tons of interesting gadgets that we haven't been able to figure out the purpose of quite yet. Our scientists should be able to deduce their function, however . . . we could use some antimatter cannons
3) Finally, Vecna, the scourge of many worlds, is dead. Killed by a 5-year old girl. I've got pictures.

ANSWER: This gets thunderous applause from the World Forum of the UC. Several rounds of such applause.
Forrester is nominated for the Adamantium Metal of Honor for his actions by the UC Parliament.
That is the highest honor that can be bestowed on anyone in the United Commonwealth of Toril.

Oerth should be left to the Oerthians. Now that the majority of foreign influence is gone, we should let them alone. I am siding with the "Prime Directive" faction of the UC (and, it should be noted, my word carries great weight on Toril).

ANSWER: The Parliament accepts this, although there is considerable political bickering.
The Prime Minister is willing to accept Forrester's stance, though, so the arguing settles down.